True Nature

A day with A. H. Almaas
at Spirit Rock

All spiritual beliefs are interpretation. What we call spiritual is just the next stage of maturity. We can't find what we're looking for because our minds are in the way -- many subtle ways. True Nature is beyond the sensations of the body -- not created by mind or teachings. The practice is to not try to change ourselves or our experience -- also, not to try to keep it the same. Hands off -- just let it be.

Suffering doesn't go to True Nature -- it is superimposed over it. Be fully in contact with your experience, whatever it is, without trying to make it different. Be aware of the experience without trying to judge it or make it better. Our minds are hard-wired to want to keep things "desirable" and get rid of everything "undesirable". We judge what we like as "good" rather than simply experience it. True Nature accepts it all -- with an open heart. It takes practice. We're already there, we just need to get in touch with it.

In pure luminous awareness (Nirvana), one doesn't do anything so as not to change things. It's similar to the Heisenberg Principle of physics. If you grab for it, you change it. If you desire it or avoid it, you change it. Rather feel full and open -- allowing rather than grasping. Recognize each moment without doing anything to it. Understand completely the texture of the moment.

Be where you are and inquire into it -- be interested in it until it reveals itself. The self becomes an organ of perception -- the very nature of self is self-revealing. Don't try to transition -- wherever you are is truth. True Nature has its own intelligence.

Enlightenment is just the beginning of another journey. The human potential is infinite.